Rich Cross-Platform Desktop Applications Using Open-Source Titanium

Titanium is an open-source platform that enables developers to build rich
desktop applications using standard Web technologies. Titanium applications
run natively on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. At a
high level, Titanium competes directly with Adobe AIR, although it differs
from AIR in three major ways. First, Titanium is open source; it's
licensed under the Apache Public License (version 2). Second, Titanium is
fully extensible; Titanium extensions can be written using a number of
popular languages, including C++, JavaScript, Ruby and Python. Finally,
Titanium opens up user interface programming to popular languages like Ruby
and Python—a job typically reserved only for JavaScript. Both Ruby and
Python have full access to the Document Object Model (DOM), which puts
these languages on par with JavaScript for building rich, dynamic user
interfaces.

It is important to note that Titanium is not a system that provides
a point-and-click ability to build a single application that runs
both on the Web and on the desktop;
however, that is not to say code sharing across the Web
interface and desktop interface is impossible.

Some developers may choose to develop with a share-and-segregate
pattern: write a common set of shared libraries, then write
platform-specific code for use in a Web interface and other
code for use in a desktop interface.
In this case, you'll still have a single
codebase, but you'll end up with two different apps.

Other developers may choose to develop using progressive enhancement.
With progressive enhancement, you start by implementing a basic set of features, then as
new resources become available, you build up functionality to make use
of these new resources.

A good example is Google Docs. There's a basic set of features
you can access on-line, but if you install Google Gears, you get
off-line access and other features as well.
The same goes for Titanium apps. Developers can enhance
their Web applications progressively by adding features and functions that will
be available only when the app is run on a Titanium instance.
Using this approach you have just a single app.

Both of these techniques are valid
choices when it comes to developing apps. Both techniques have pros and
cons, and it's up to you as the developer to choose which method to use.

No matter which technique you choose—two separate codebases,
one codebase and two apps, or one app—at the very least, Titanium
allows you to leverage your Web development knowledge to build desktop applications.
It lets you use HTML and JavaScript, as well as other languages
most often associated with Web development, to develop
desktop applications.

No More Limits on Web Development

Titanium is a development platform with one clear goal: leverage Web
technologies to create rich, cross-platform desktop applications. Using
Titanium, you can create desktop applications using HTML and JavaScript,
yet still get features not available on browser applications. For example,
Titanium Web applications built for the desktop can access the filesystem
and interact with the underlying operating system.

The idea behind Titanium isn't new, but Titanium clearly separates itself
by giving you something unique: unlimited possibilities with open-source
choices. You aren't forced to use anything proprietary—you can use any library or
framework you want. All technological decisions are yours to make.

Although I mainly program with JavaScript for Web applications, it isn't
the only technology that powers the Web. Titanium works well with Python,
PHP, Ruby, Java, Flash and Flex, and Silverlight. So whatever technology
you're using right now to develop your Web applications, you'll likely be
able to use it with Titanium.

Because Titanium is distributed under the open-source Apache Public License
v2, you can download the source code, play with it, fork it and extend it.
It's this extensibility that makes Titanium a platform that developers can
grow with in the future. The platform can morph and evolve into different
forms as new needs emerge.

Rapidly Evolving Web Development Platform

Titanium is evolving rapidly and has experienced several major changes to
its architecture in the past few months.

The initial preview release of Titanium (PR1) incorporated WebKit and a
modified version of Google Gears. Essentially, Titanium PR1 used WebKit as
its main component, and additional features were exposed to the runtime via
a native extensions system, which gave developers access to features from a
modified version of Gears.

Soon after this initial preview release, the Titanium team started to
re-architect the platform. Google Gears was removed, and instead, a new
system for exposing new features was created: Kroll.

Kroll is the microkernel that powers Titanium and extends the framework.
This compact microkernel, written in C++, is a cross-language,
cross-platform “binding” and invocation framework that enables mixing and
matching code within the kernel. All the features that Titanium exposes are
accomplished via Kroll modules. By using Kroll, Titanium gains the ability
to support a multitude of languages and technologies. And, because Kroll is
fully extensible, anyone can add more features to the platform, using any
technology. You don't need to be a C++ guru to extend
Titanium. You can create new modules using Python and Ruby, or even just
plain-old JavaScript.

Titanium's use of WebKit was retained during the rewrite from PR1, and for
good reasons. Not only is WebKit one of the best, standards-compliant
engines available today, but it also features lots of goodies, such as HTML5
client database storage, CSS transformations and animations, and a fast
JavaScript engine. All of these, of course, are available on Titanium.

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...except, the product is unreliable as stink (I am using 0.82). I am surprised you were able to get your example code running. Every corner I discover new show-stopper bugs that shouldn't even be in a beta product. On top of that, because you rely on their "cloud", you are at the mercy of their server code too - which is crazy unreliable. I would say 90% of the time I am not even able to get an installer built! And, once the installer is made, often it is corrupt - or doesn't install properly. Just go try to install some of the "example" apps on appcelerator's site - I only tried 3, but 2 wouldn't install properly. Geesh!

The idea is terrific: native apps with a UI in an embedded webkit. But the implementation is weird and unreliable. And, the whole so-called "cloud" bit to their development story is ridiculous. Let's hope 1.0 is dramatically better quality.

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